Former San Diego CEO Sentenced for Health Care Fraud Through State Workers’ Comp System

The former CEO of several Southern California medical imaging companies was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison for orchestrating a scheme in which more than $250 million in claims for medical services were fraudulently submitted through the state workers’ compensation system.

Sam Sarkis Solakyan, 40, of Glendale, was found guilty by a San Diego federal jury last year of running a “cross-referral” scheme in which physicians received money or new patient referrals in exchange for the referral of workers’ compensation patients, according to the Department of Justice.

In addition to custody, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant ordered Solakyan to pay nearly $30 million in restitution to various insurers and banned him from working in the healthcare and workers compensation industries during a three-year period of supervised release that will begin once he’s released from prison.

Read the entire news article.  Times of San Diego, by City News Service, January 28, 2022

NICB assisted the investigation.